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Do you like to play video games? Introducing ArtScience Museum’s latest exhibition, Virtual Realms: Videogames Transformed where visitors will be transported to a new dimension featuring videogame creativity in six new installations that reshape how games can be experienced in virtual and physical realms from now till 9 January 2022.

This exciting and immersive exhibition introduces visitors to new ways of approaching and enjoying
videogames through six key themes – SYNESTHESIA, UNITY, CONNECTION, PLAY, NARRATIVE and EVERYTHING, is co-curated by celebrated game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi, in collaboration with the Barbican in London, Virtual Realms is a co-production with ArtScience Museum and Melbourne Museum.

The new artworks presented in Virtual Realms are conceived by some of the world’s leading videogame developers, KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS (makers of DEATH STRANDING), Enhance (Tetsuya Mizuguchi and team behind Rez Infinite), thatgamecompany (authors of the game, Sky: Children of the Light), Tequila Works (the studio that made RiME), Media Molecule (creators of Dreams) and David OReilly (creator of the game, Everything). They have each developed a newly commissioned installation inspired by these games, working in collaboration with the media artists and design studios, Rhizomatiks, FIELD.IO, The Mill, Marshmallow Laser Feast, onedotzero and The Workers.

The exhibition design of Virtual Realms enhances the immersive quality of the show, and was created by celebrated stage designer, Chiara Stephenson, who has worked with performers such as Bjork, The xx and Lorde, as well as theatres such as Donmar Warehouse, Bristol Old Vic and Leipzig Opera House. The graphic identity of the exhibition is by Stinsensqueeze.

Complementing the Virtual Realms is a lineup of unique programmes curated by ArtScience Museum designed to showcase how videogames can connect the virtual and physical worlds.

Complementary programmes to Virtual Realms

ArtScience Museum is presenting Expanded Realities Conversations in conjunction with the launch of Virtual Realms, a new series of talks for ArtScience at Home, the museum’s online programme. Expanded Realities will feature artists, technologists and storytellers from around the world, who are creating art that features virtual reality, augmented reality, and extended reality technologies.

The first talk in the series will take place on 17 June 2021 and features Tetsuya Mizuguchi, game designer and co-curator of Virtual Realms. He will be in conversation with Patrick Moran, co-curator of Virtual Realms. Together they will explore how the collaborations in Virtual Realms push the boundaries of videogames, paving the way for a future that takes games beyond the screen and into the physical world. This first session of Expanded Realities Conversations will be livestreamed on ArtScience Museum’s website, Facebook page and YouTube channel.

ArtScience Museum is also creating a series of hands-on workshops which enable visitors to learn more about making games. The “Draw Your Own Game” workshop for children aged 9 and above will take place on selected dates in September and invites young visitors to let their imagination run wild by conceiving and drawing their own game, before taking it into the digital realm.

Beyond these events, visitors can look forward to tours and school programmes which will be made available throughout the run of the exhibition. For more information, please visit https://www.marinabaysands.com/museum/exhibitions/virtual-realms.html